Pendent or trolley-carrier meat-hook.



No. 812,861- PATEN'I'ED FEB- 20, 1906.

G. W. MARTIN.

PENDENT OR TROLLEY CARRIER MEAT HOOK.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29, 1905.

- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF TWO-THIRDS TO JAMES S. AGAR AND DAVID C. ROACH, BOTH OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 20, 1906.

Application filed June 29, 1905. Serial No 267,499.

Tomi/Z whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Pendent or Trolley-Carrier Meat-Hooks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in trolley-carrier meat-hooks such as are used in packing-houses for suspending from atrolley-carrier quarters of beef and supporting the same and moving them from one portion of the packing-house to another.

Heretofore pendent or trolley-carrier meathooks have consisted simply of a plain hook having a pivotal and swivel connection with the dependent arm of the trolley, and heretofore in actual use or practice it has required two men to disengage a quarter of beef suspended from the hook, one to lift it and the other to disengage the pendent hook therefrom, as frequently the hook is somewhat tightly wedged in between adjacent ribs, if

it is a fore quarter, or between the tendon and leg-bone, if it is a hind quarter, and requires some force to pull the hook out, and

thus makes necessary the aid of a second person, as the hook is pendent or pivotally connected to the trolley.

The object of my invention is to provide a pendent or trolley-carrier meat-hook of a simple, strong, efficient, and durable constructionwhich will automatically free or clear itself from the quarter of beef when the same is lifted and the hook thus relieved from the weight thereof, so that the one person lifting the quarter may be sufficient to disconnect the quarter of beef from the hook and the services of a helper thus dispensed with or saved.

My invention consists in the means I employ to practically accomplish this object or resultthat is to say, it consists in a trolleycarrier or pendent meat-hook having the customary pivotal and swivel connection with the dependent trolley-arm and having a shank portion provided with a spring-supporting block or member and a hook-freeing spring, preferably of steel-plate, secured at its upper end to the s ring-supporting block on the shank of the 00k and extending across the mouth of the hook and furnished with a slot to receive the prong of the hook, which hookfreeing spring bends or yields under the weight of the beefuarter when the same is suspended from the 00k and serves to automatically free the hook from the quarter of beef when it is lifted or the hook relieved from its weight.

My invention also consists in the novel construction of parts and devices and in the novel combinations of parts and devices herein shown and described.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2, a front view looking from the sectional line 2 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, an enlarged detail side elevation, and Fig. 4 a cross-section on line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

In the drawings, A represents the rail upon which the trolley-wheel B travels, and B is the dependent arm of the trolley with which the hook D has a pivotal and swivel connection by the swivel-link C. The shank cl of the hook is furnished with a spring-supporting block, enlargement, or portion (1, having a flat face to receive the upper end of the hookfreeing spring F,which is rigidly secured thereto by screws or bolts f, so as to give a flat and strong support to the spring. The spring is preferably of plate-steel and is preferably bent or curved, as illustrated in Fig. 3 or in the dotted lines in Fig. 1. The flat platesteel spring F projects across the mouth or crotch of the hook and is furnished near its free end with a central longitudinal slot f to receive the prong d of the hook and permit the necessary movement of the free end of the spring along the prong of the hook without causing the spring to bind on the point or engage the hook-prong. The hook D has the customary eye (1 at the upper end of its shank d for pivotally connecting or hinging it to the swivel-link C, by which it has a swivel connection with the pendent arm of the trolley. As the hook-freeing spring F leaves the point portion (1 of the hook-prong normally projecting above or beyond the free end of the spring, as will be readily understood from Fig 3 and from the dotted lines in Fig. 1, the spring F does not interfere with the act or operation of hanging or suspending the beef-quarter X on the hook, it being of course understood that in this operation of hanging the quarter on the hook two men are required, one to hold the beef-quarter in position and the other to insert the hook therein. After the extreme point portion 01 of the hook-prong has been inserted in the beefquarter the instant the weight of the quarter comes upon the hook the spring F bends into a position approximating parallelism with the shank of the hook, as shown in the full lines in Fig. 1, so that the beef-quarter remains securely engaged with the hook and suspended therefrom the same as though my hook-freeing spring were not employed. When, however,'it is desired to lift and disengage the beef-quarter from the hook, all that is required is that the beefuarter be lifted and the hook thus relieved om its weight, and then the strong spring F will automatically withdraw or disengage the hook from the beef-quarter, so that this lifting and disengaging the beef-quarter from my improved self freeing hook may be quickly, easily, and conveniently done by a single person and without assistance. It will of course be understood that when the beefquarter is lifted as soon as the spring F frees or withdraws the hook from the beef-quarter as far as the spring expands the point or extreme tapering portion d of the hook-prong is then loose in the hook-hole in the beef-quarter, and the hook then drops back by its own weight entirely free from the quarter.

My pendent or trolley-carrier meat-hook while specially designed for use in suspending quarters of beef may also be used for suspending other articles and disengaging the hook therefrom when the suspended article is lifted and the hook thus relieved from the Weight thereof.

I claim 1. In a pendent or trolley-carrier meathook, the combination with the trolley, of a meat-hook having a pivotal and swivel connection with the pendent arm of the trolley,

and having its shank furnished with a springsupporting block, and a hook freeing flat curved spring secured at its upper end to the spring-supporting block on the hook-shank and extending across the mouth of the hook, and having a slot in its free end to receive the hook-prong and permit flexure of the spring, substantially as specified.

2. A pendent meat hook having a hookfreeing spring secured to the shank portion of the hook, and projecting across the mouth of the hook to withdraw or free the hook-prong from the article suspended therefrom when it is lifted, substantially as specified.

3. A pendent meat-hook furnished with a spring to free or Withdraw the same from the article suspended on the hook when it is lifted, substantially as specified.

4. A pendent meat-hook having a hookfreeing spring secured to the shank portion of the hook, and projecting across the mouth of the hook to withdraw or free the hook-prong from the article suspended therefrom when it is lifted, said hook-freeing spring having a slot at its free end to receiveand accommodate the prong of the hook, substantially as specified.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN.

Witnesses:

EDMUND AnoooK, H. M. MUNDAY. 

